Food. Uff

As of today, I'll have been in FL for 7 weeks. Five and a half of those weeks I spent at the hospital 12-13 hours a day. I was staying at an apartment around 30 min away. This means that my only time to make REAL food was at night, or over night. One of the nurses we met was gracious enough to lend me a croc pot. LIFE SAVER! Honestly. I am not sure I could have functioned as well without the use of that.

I used the croc pot to make chili, chicken (many times over), and meat for stir fry.

The chili that I made lasted for about 6 or 7 meals. If you can handle eating the same thing over and over again this was a fantastic option! Now, I'm sorry to inform you all, but I can be a very unhelpful cook... I don't always use a recipe.. Nor do I remember half the time what I put in a dish. I can give you some tips though:
- use tomato sauce AND diced tomatoes.
-Let the chili sit on low for 6-8 hours. Chili is best when it's sat a long time and the flavors can get to
 know each other.
- You don't have to use a croc pot chili specific recipe. Any chili recipe will do. You're cooking it on
 low so you have some leeway.

Chicken. I used the croc pot to cook 2 pounds of chicken at a time. When it was done (so in the morning because I put it in before I went to bed) I would take it out and while it was hot I would shred it. This made the chicken useable for many different types of food. I mostly used it for on top of salads. I would buy organic prepared lettuce, a bottle of balsamic vinaigrette from Trader Joe's and I also would cut up some strawberries. Throw that on a bed of leafy greens and BOOM clean eating at it's finest! I can eat the same thing many days in a row without much complaint so I had a chicken salad pretty much every day for 4 weeks.

I also used the chicken to make quesadillas. I didn't buy any butter, but I did buy a jar of coconut oil and I used it to "butter" each side of the tortilla. Then I cooked it in a pan and whoa... Mind blown! I liked it better than butter! I kept a jar of pico de gallo on hand for such occasions. I also kept a bag of yummy chips on hand to enjoy as a midnight snack too.

For the croc pot I also made One-Pot Chicken Burrito Bowls. Thank you Pinterest. This was used over lettuce, as is, and as a chip dip. It is clean, yummy, and versatile. Even my husband was able to enjoy it!

As far as other foods I kept on hand: I always had 2 doz eggs on hand. One dozen I would hard boil and keep in the fridge for a protein hunger buster. The other I used to make my fav: sunny side up eggs. Eggs are quick, full of protein, and yummy!

For breakfast I always have a smoothie. It's just my way of getting my daily fruits in. I also feel significantly less bloated when I eat a smoothie for breakfast. I made smoothies for myself only so I decided to splurge and buy all fresh fruit. My smoothies consisted of:
*2 healthy spoonfuls of full fat, organic yogurt
*1 banana
*1 orange
*a few strawberries
*maybe some pineapple or mango
**When I'm home I also add a scoop of protein powder, but a girl can only do so much 1,700 miles away from home.**
To deal with the loss of protein powder I would eat a hard boiled egg as well. Usually around 10 or 11am I would start to feel hungry already so I also would eat a small bag of almonds.

Ok, I better be done... this is a long blog about saving money and time on food, but still eating clean... with no photos... SORRY! Blogger fail to forget to take photos. Sooooo as an apology here's a cute photo of our son the day before we were discharged eating.

I mean... we are talking about food after all.